The Pains of War

By E.G. Vallianatos

Steve Mason was my next-door neighbor in Alexandria, Va., for
several years. We used to take our dogs on long walks in the woods.
Steve spoke often about his Vietnam War experience. He said he had
been part of the crew that sprayed Agent Orange over the forests of
Vietnam.

He knew that the spray was a powerful defoliant, but he did not
know of the human harvest of disease and death of Agent Orange. From
1962 to 1971 the US sprayed about 12 million gallons of the chemical
warfare agent over some five million acres of Vietnam, injuring
countless Vietnamese and American soldiers. But Steve Mason was, like
so many soldiers, apolitical, spending all his energy in survival. I
mentioned that the veterans of the Vietnam War who came down with
Agent Orange-related disease have had enormous problems with the
Department of Veterans Affairs. Even after he heard of the raging
controversy over Agent Orange, he never complained about the mission
of the US in Vietnam.

Steve Mason was from North Carolina. He served with his first
cousin in Vietnam, but his cousin never made it back to America.
After Steve came back from Vietnam, he married his dead first
cousin's widow, Carol.

In the late 1990s Steve Mason started complaining of back pains.
His chiropractor sent him to another doctor who diagnosed him with
cancer, the same cancer that has been afflicting some of those
exposed to Agent Orange. For two years I took his dog, Dakota, for
walk with my dog, Eleni. Meanwhile, Steve went through a full gamut
of X-ray and chemical treatments, with the result he spent months in
the hospital on the verge of death, the remaining time he would be in
remission at home.

The first sign the situation was getting bad for Steve was that he
lost control of his legs. Now he had to use a wheelchair. He fought
hard for his life, however. His emails to his friends were full of
jokes, always describing his agony next to his next project of
defeating death. He moved away from Alexandria in 1999 to a new home
in Fredericksburg that made it easier for him to be on his wheelchair
and raise vegetables on raised beds.

Yet on July 9, 2004, Steve Mason died, becoming another soldier in
an army that died from poisoning. He was probably 60 years old. He
paid the ultimate price for having come in contact with Agent Orange
in Vietnam while in his 20s. He had a military funeral with full
honors at the Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 30, 2004. The
military pastor said to Steve's wife, Carol, who was burying her
second Vietnam War husband, that only those who fight in the war know
the pains of war.

The pains of the Vietnam War, like the death of Steve Mason, touch
a few people at a time, but they never cease. The war veterans
remember. The Arlington cemetery is permanent evidence for that
memory. And even after all veterans are dead, the memory of the
Vietnam War will divide America for generations to come. This is
because the Vietnam War was a war of aggression. There was nothing
noble in stepping into the shoes of France and fighting a colonial
war in Southeast Asia. Killing the forests of Vietnam with Agent
Orange, and indirectly dooming Steve Mason, was also a violation of
international law.

That's why politicians and Vietnam veterans are throwing mud
against each other -- some praising Sen. John Kerry for his valor in
the Vietnam War and others, remembering young Kerry's indignation
against US policy in Vietnam in the early 1970s, denying him the
honor of having served his country with distinction. The bitter
memories from Vietnam are overflowing not merely because Sen. Kerry
is battling president George W. Bush for the White House, but also
because the country is fighting another unjust war, this time in
Iraq, creating more pain for this and future generations.

It's time for the country to learn from its experience in the
Vietnam War, ending its self-inflicted war pain. That would be the
greatest honor we can bestow on Steve Mason and all the nameless war
veterans.

E.G. Vallianatos is a visiting professor at the University of
Maryland.